The years of dealing with hundreds of different cables is past, and now nearly everything is USB port Type-A to Micro-B which is USB2 speed and also works on USB3 devices, this is mainly due to the common EPS agreement and ignoring bloody Apple means you can use the same cable for everything from charging batteries to data transfer.

But not all cables are created equal as we have all discovered when we open something shiny and beautiful and discover at the bottom of the packaging a stunted inflexible thing that looks as if it came out of a Christmas cracker. Now there are lots of posh cables out there costing a sodding fortune, flat ones, retractable ones, gold plugs etc etc. but really all I want from a good cable is:

• Small heads so it fits all devices (even if you have a case on the device)
• Able to take 10Watt (5v x 2amp) load safely
• Flexible with a good metal shielding inside against interference
• USB2 speed and a good low resistance (some of the tablets can be really picky about this)
• Ideally a repeatable order so they are all the same size (Its nice and neat if they are all the same)

Turns out that reliable cables with these specs have been kicking around forever and you can still get them for about £2, its the old Nokia ones back when Nokia was king of the Hill, to search for it you want to look for CA-101 a 120cm (47inch) cable with its own attached tidy clip and the CA-101D (a 19cm (7.5inch) version with no clip) these cables have served me well and consistently on a variety of devices when other more expensive ones have let me down, recommended

The reason I do not suggest the newer Nokia CA-179, is that I have heard that it wont charge at the the higher amps i.e. more than 500ma

Oh, all the ones I have ordered have been a bit stiff then they arrived but have soon softened up with a but of use

Filed under Hardware, linkedin.